[Savage Worlds] Urban Fantasy, Session 1

The Mutant Buddhas got together last Friday at Games and Gizmos in Redmond, Washington. MW ran an Urban Fantasy game set in his fictional Brighton Bay (based partially on Bellingham, Washington). CR played Phyllis Norg the Troll, CS and CB played Don Ling the Sidhe and Natasha Ambrosius the Urban Scholar, BB played the teenage cat-burglar Tom Steele, and newcomer IL played Steve Smith, a grave-touched (raised by ghosts) mortal. I was Nick English, Private Eye.

Due to our collective misfit nature, we had known each other for years, orbiting each other in an asteroid field of other misfits. We had just been at a local science fiction convention and were walking to a nearby restaurant when we passed an alley. A gang of thugs were trashing a homeless guy and we decided to stop it.

Natasha figured out that they were actually Red Caps and Nick stepped forward, lit his cigarette (I created a prop cigarette) with his Hellboy lighter and told them to step away. I rolled a pretty good intimidate roll but not enough to cause them to back down. Phyllis was all set to thrash her some Red Caps and they prepared to fight.

Don did his best to convince the Red Caps to leave but that didn't work out well. Around this whole exchange, certain things developed in play - Nick believed he knew what was going on ("They're that gang, the 7th Street Red Caps, right? Why are they on 42nd and Farrugut?") and seemed oblivious to Steve disappearing in front of his eyes (gravetouched have the ability to turn invisible and other ghostly abilities) expressing "Where the Hell is Steve?!?" (which became a running joke during the game).

Don's failure to get the Red Caps to back down, as well as their cavalier insults aimed towards the group, led Phyllis to fight. The Red Caps were faster, though, and managed to Shake both Nick and Phyllis. When it came time for the party to respond, the Troll and the cat burglar took out two of them in very short order while the Sidhe paralyzed the leader. The combat ended with 4 Red Caps down, one paralyzed and another runnin'. Nick winged him with a shot from his glock but he got away.

The paralyzed Red Cap leader was questioned and Don calmly stated that he expected a favor and information in order for the rest of the party not to smear Red Cap all over the walls in a rather messy fashion. While Natasha and Nick went to find the homeless man, the rest found out that a Johnson had hired the Red Caps to take out the guy, giving them cash (Tom found $200 on the downed Red Caps) and a very nice and exacting drawing of the man.

The "homeless man" turned out to be a rich, successful antique bookseller named Milo Goshtashebi. Nick was convinced he spent several years in Milan and Madrid running various businesses (complete fabrications that were pretty funny with Milo's protestations of them not being the case) but noticed his very quality clothing.

With police rushing to the scene (due to the discharge of a firearm), the party gathered up Milo, picked up some pizza ("Where the Hell is Steve?!?!?"), and went to Milo's house. After eating, we discussed the hit on him. He believed it was a simple mugging but that didn't prove to be the case. Don and Natasha finally convinced him that the Fae world was real by having Phyllis show her true mein and Steve kept disappearing, prompting an exchange between Nick and Don:

"Where the Hell is Steve?!?!"
"You realize he keeps disappearing, right?"
"Yeah, he was right here a minute ago ...."
"No, he disappears!"
"I know, he disappears, he's slippery, that Steve."
"No, he REALLY disappears."
"He's probably in the bathroom."
"AAAaarrrrgggghhhhh!"

Nick noticed a red dot on Milo's head and I spent 4 Bennies to jump on him just in time to save his life. After that, Steve appeared and closed the curtains, the party disguised Milo as a sci-fi convention goer and the group planned their escape.

With a good investigation roll, Nick figured Milo's car would be rigged with a bomb. Using the car's remote access/start-up, he started the car (which promptly blew up) and in the confusion and fire, the group escaped with the rest of the condo building inhabitants.

On the way out, we spotted the sniper and Don cast a glamour that showed Milo leaving the condo so the sniper could "take him out." An extremely good roll by CS fooled the sniper and Nick got a vid of it on his cell-phone.

As the party hurried away with the disguised Milo, Nick made a call on a disposable cell-phone to the cops, saying he saw his neighbor Milo getting shot and dragged off by some folks. The police and fire arrived on the scene as the game session came to a close.

The game was very fun. It was good to have tha variety of characters and the players did a good job developing them. We're looking forward to Session 2!